PARI space facility turns 50

This month, the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the dedication of NASA’s Rosman Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Facility.

The 200-acre site in the Pisgah National Forest was once a NASA space station before being handed over to the U.S. Department of Defense in 1981, during the Cold War. The institute took it over in 1999. When controlled by NASA, the facility played a critical role in the pioneering days of the U.S. space effort. Some of the instruments used to communicate with the earliest space flights are still in operation.

The public will have the opportunity to tour the facility, free of charge, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 26. The facility was first opened up to the public the same day in 1963. But the open house is just one aspect of the event-filled weekend planned at the institute. A NASA veteran is scheduled to talk about early spaceflight and a night-sky viewing session is planned.

The Naturalist's Corner

My family and I made a quick run up to Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway around dusk last Sunday (July 19) to get a peek at some celestial luminaries. Venus and Jupiter joined the waxing crescent moon on the western horizon. They danced and played hide and seek amidst layered clouds whose purple backs touched the night while their bellies bathed in the last yellow and orange rays of the sun falling over the western horizon. It was a beautiful, tranquil setting.